New Dromed Video Tutorial Series

[Dale_]

Hey there dear taffers!

I've started a video tutorial series on Dromed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFIcXS4qx4E

Would you mind adding it to the tutorial section, provided there aren't any blunders? (I hope there aren't )

Thanks!

[OldMeat]

By chance I watched this today.

It is very good but fairly long and a lot of ground covered for a basic level.

It had some very good tips some which I already knew and a couple I did not. I had no idea about the ctrl-shift-O for toggling the light_bright command while in-game.

It also covers a few file modifications for the editor.

I noticed once I applied some of these file mods, objects and brushes now have a center mark which makes alignment easier.

If you don't have that much time or patience just divide watching it in 15 minute segments, there really will not be any regrets by watching this.

Great job on this tutorial.

One question.

How did you get the burrick on the lower corner of your screen? Did you modify your software somehow?

[Dale_]

Thanks!

The burrick: green screen. I made a room with bright green texture on all the walls, recorded a video of the burrick, then I combined it with the main video using chroma key and editing all the green out.

[OldMeat]

I was wondering if it was green screened or a possibly modified software file companions like the paper clip or dog.

It is certainly a nice addition to the video.

[Tannar]

I've only watched a short portion of the video but it looks like you've done a nice job. When I have some free time I'll add this to the tutorials thread.

I wanted to mention one thing that may or may not be relevant anymore, now that we have New Dark. Your building method appears to be to create a large air brush and then fill it with solid brushes. While many, perhaps most, authors work this way, there was some early debate, and some later discussion, on whether this was the best method. But whether it's best or not, it isn't the only method. I'm sure it just comes down to the author's preference, but I thought I should mention it.

[Dale_]

Thanks, that's a good point. I'll be sure to mention the other method in the next part

[LarryG]

Using a predominantly subtractive approach (carving out individual airbrushes as you go) facilitates room brushing later on. If you carve out a large airbrush and then add in solids, more air brushes, more solids, etc., room brushing to get proper sound propagation can get quite difficult. But if your approach is to carve out discrete air brushes from the world solid, room brushing is pretty much a button push. Both approaches work. And there are trade-offs between them, but on the whole, I think the subtractive approach should be emphasized. Once you learn how to do that, you should know enough to be able to decide whether circumstances in your mission architecture should push you in the other direction or not.

And everyone should have this: principles.zip

and have read Dark Engine Level Design - Stepwise Refinement Method by GayleSaver (see the tutorials or http://southquarter.com/dromed/?p=70)

[SlyFoxx]

Well done.

At some point shortly it would be good to advise the viewer to save a copy of the .mis file and name it BaseMission.mis or something to the like. You've gone through loading the scripts, player factory etc. so now is a good time to make a permanent file as the base for new work.

[OldMeat]

I am not sure but I think I sort of use both.

When I first started to use the dromed editor I followed the official tutorial made by LGS, which allowed me to make one of my first levels in the first TDP series, unfortunately everytime I had a level in some near finished form, by some repetitive stroke of bad luck my machine would crash for unrelated reasons and I would lose all my building work.

Later, I also followed the Komag tutorial of which I have a current level built from but still using some of the principles set down in the first LGS tutorial. I have a fairly nice little Hammerite cathedral built into this current level of which I have now about 24 different saves of progressive improvements upon this same level.

That brings me to the next problem, which would be roofing.

Roofing is my weakest area in a level build. I might be over-thinking this, but it really does perplex me on how to proceed.

I have worked many technical problems and techniques in some other areas in the use of this engine, but roofing is one part of level building which is not covered in many of the tutorials I have come across.

If anyone notices, most beginning FMs have flat roofs if any at all, with occasional roof awning like overhangs. Once inside a room brush many of these contain flat ceilings. The use of cone brushes might be the only improvement to some of these types of levels.

I want to build a vaulted ceiling for my cathedral but I am not sure whether or not I should use an object roof which is not solid especially after resizing unless resized in other software, or build a scratch made roof and interior ceiling made from new brushes.

Which scratch made room brush method would be better for making a cieling and roof?

Would this seem to be an appropriate subject for subtractive vs. adding solids and more brushes after?

[PinkDot]

I want to build a vaulted ceiling for my cathedral but I am not sure whether or not I should use an object roof which is not solid especially after resizing unless resized in other software, or build a scratch made roof and interior ceiling made from new brushes.

Which scratch made room brush method would be better for making a cieling and roof?

There's been a thread about vaulted ceilings some time ago: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140935

With object ceiling you can get more details and smooth shading, but lighting won't be as good. However if you want lighting to look the same on the ceiling as on the columns and walls and if you like some definitive shadows you should go for the brushes.

You can use a combination of both substractive and additive brushes to get certain shapes.
The whole dilemma - sub. vs add. applies more to the main layout of the scene - open space, streets, rooms, doors etc.. When it comes to modelling details inside a room, it doesn't matter that much.

[OldMeat]

I did not mean to change the subject because this is about Dale's tutorial.

This tutorial will certainly get beginning level designers a fast track to making a level.

Still, while the subject of building methods has been brought up, I thought the idea of interior ceilings and roofing would have some pertinence to subtractive building and the editor methods described in his tutorial.

I hope to see more from this series.

[Dale_]

Don't worry about changing the subject, anything Dromed-related is still to the point.
I'm also hoping this will help gather more candidates for the upcoming contest. I'll try to make part 2 some time this week.

LarryG: Thanks for the links, it was an interesting read (I think I've also read parts of it before somewhere). I can say I already adhere to pretty much all of those points. The mention in the video about "you make a giant air brush, then fill it with solid brushes" was more to get the general idea across, but I admit I'm still inclined to build that way in certain scenarios. At least to some degree. I definitely agree roombrushing is then much harder but things like visible objects and polys should be a thing of the past, right? (Well, unless there are 6k of them)

[Dale_]

Continuing with taming Dromed part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D_NsOl07Qc

Content:
- configuring startup.cmd
- full-screen resolution
- changing Dromed's font
- editing Dromed hotkeys
- working with textures

Edit: Aaand part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVQ3yxeNTRY

[Xorak]

Using a predominantly subtractive approach (carving out individual airbrushes as you go) facilitates room brushing later on.

I rebuilt a 1500 brush mission I have here for the sake of seeing what method was better. I didn't do it to help the roombrushing (because it was going to be hell to roombrush either way), but solely to see what way produced a lower cell count. After about a month of rebuilding, I realized that up to that point, the two methods produced the same number of cells. Although the additive method required fewer brushes and was messier, the subtractive method required far more brushes to carve out the cylinders and angles and it all sort of evened out in the end.

[Tannar]

I've added this to the Tutorials Overview thread in the DromEd: NewDark section.

[Cardia]

By chance I watched this today.

It is very good but fairly long and a lot of ground covered for a basic level.

It had some very good tips some which I already knew and a couple I did not. I had no idea about the ctrl-shift-O for toggling the light_bright command while in-game.

I´m learning new basic skills with Dale's Dromed videos, although i can´t toggle light in game mode by pressing ctrl-shift-0 or O ? i tried both and it din´t work, does this comes with the new dromed menus?

[Dale_]

Thanks Tannar!

Cardia: That's odd. The way it's in default.bnd is actually o+ctrl+shift and it works for me both in editor and in game in 1.21 and 1.22. I'm not using any custom menus. If you open default.bnd in notepad, can you find this line there?

all bind o+ctrl+shift "toggle_lighting" ; Newdark Only

[LarryG]

That binding is there, but the o+ctrl+shift key combo doesn't do anything in game mode or in edit mode for me.

[Cardia]

I´m still using grid size "12" even with New DArk, does any of you use lower than "12" grid size now with new Dark?

[Cardia]

Thanks Tannar!

Cardia: That's odd. The way it's in default.bnd is actually o+ctrl+shift and it works for me both in editor and in game in 1.21 and 1.22. I'm not using any custom menus. If you open default.bnd in notepad, can you find this line there?

all bind o+ctrl+shift "toggle_lighting" ; Newdark Only

This is what i have in my "Keybind" file regarding toggling light:

bind_edit_ctrl-d dissolve_group ; break cur group into individual brushes
bind_edit_ctrl-g grid_toggle ; Should place operation grid snap or not
bind_edit_ctrl-l raycast_light ; toggle on shadow casting
bind_all_ctrl-o lit_obj_toggle
bind_all_ctrl-p history_cmd -1 ; bring up cmdterm on last command
bind_edit_ctrl-q brush_relative
bind_game_ctrl-q new_sound
bind_edit_ctrl-r relight_level 0 ; relight the level
bind_edit_ctrl-u undo
bind_edit_ctrl-w cycle_group 0 ; go to last group
bind_edit_ctrl-x xmouse ; toggle auto-camera selection
bind_edit_ctrl-z undo ; windows compaitible, eh?
bind_edit_ctrl-SPACE redraw_all ; refresh all views

I was able to light the objects only

[Xorak]

I´m still using grid size "12" even with New DArk, does any of you use lower than "12" grid size now with new Dark?

I use 13 mainly to place most rooms and hallways and 12 for finer details inside the rooms and almost always for stairs. Sometimes I go to 11 in order to carve out perfect half-cylinders using wedges but even that freaks me out as I do it.

[Cardia]

I use 13 mainly to place most rooms and hallways and 12 for finer details inside the rooms and almost always for stairs. Sometimes I go to 11 in order to carve out perfect half-cylinders using wedges but even that freaks me out as I do it.

most of my missions were done with 12 grid, i never used 11, but i´ll try it eventually

[LarryG]

I just stick with 12. Seems to cause no problems.

[nicked]

The bigger the grid size, the easier it is to texture. Stick to 16 for dropping the main terrain brushes in, then scale down. That way your main walls will fit textures at the default position, or neatly at powers of two.

[Cardia]

The bigger the grid size, the easier it is to texture. Stick to 16 for dropping the main terrain brushes in, then scale down. That way your main walls will fit textures at the default position, or neatly at powers of two.

I never had problems adjusting textures with grid size 12, and as i learned with Dale using mouse scroll up or down with the mouse pointer above the texture values is a fast way to adjust them.